The subject matter disclosed herein relates to using magnetostriction to measure strain in industrial machinery, such as hyper reciprocating compressors.
Industrial machinery may generate stress in at least some parts of the industrial machinery. For example, hyper reciprocating compressors are used to generate high pressures in industrial settings. For example, hyper reciprocating compressors may generate pressures up to 3500 bar (50,000 psi) in compressing ethylene, polyethelene, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), or other suitable substances. In some industrial machinery, it becomes difficult to measure stress or a condition (e.g., pressure) causing the stress. Returning to the example of hyper reciprocating compressors, due to the high pressures in a hyper reciprocating compressor, it becomes difficult to measure pressures inside these hyper reciprocating compressors as traditional methods of intrusive pressure measurement are impractical. To intrusively measure the pressure inside the compressor, a hole typically must be drilled into a cylinder of the compressor, equipment passed through the hole, and the hole resealed to withstand the high pressures.
Alternatively, industrial machinery may rely on non-intrusive measurement, such as using a resistive strain gauge on a modified tie-bolt of a hyper reciprocating compressor. However, to modify and install the tie-bolt is costly and requires much time. Furthermore, when the compressors undergo maintenance, the tie-bolt might be replaced or misplaced, thereby an operator loses the ability to monitor the industrial machinery via the resistive strain gauge on the modified tie-bolt. In other machinery, a mechanical clamp-on style resistive strain gauge may be used. Although the clamp-on style resistive strain gauge may be removed at will, these gauges have a limited frequency response (dynamic strain) and often have issues with low signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), gauge creep, or the connection between the gauge and the measured component may be lost due to mechanical failure (e.g., glue fails). Accordingly, it is desirable to provide non-intrusive measurement systems and techniques that overcome the deficiencies of present systems, as described above.